18/7/17

Red Vienna (I): Karl Marx Hof

Karl Marx Hof
Vienna, Austria. 1927-30
Architect: Karl Ehn

This article is part of the Hidden Architecture Series Neo-Modern Urbanism where we explore the conditions of several urban projects from 1950s onwards that, starting from the hypothesis of the Modern Movement, they surpassed its orthodoxy to adapt the urban features to local conditions.

"I have come to this country to introduce a completely new social system; an ignorant and selfish system must become an enlightened social system, which will unify all individual interests into a single common interest, and in which all reasons for competitive struggle will be overcome. "

"It is necessary to delve into the alienating characteristics of modern society, into the solitary crowd of almost totally urbanized society, to find the prime cause that groups young people and those who are not so much. It is the mechanization of human communication, which leads to longing for the old face-to-face and direct relationship of human being and primitive society. A strong sense of being disaggregated from the group to serve as loose piece to the great machine of the system make, suddenly, people not wounded by the process rebel against it and seek each other. "

Throughout a brief but intense period of time, the municipal government of Vienna undertook the initiative of constructing a great number of social houses for families of scarce resources. Thus, between 1919 and 1934 is built what has been called as Vienna Red, small interventions of urban acupuncture intended for the massive construction of a new community habitat.

These urban operations never had the vocation to alter the urban structure of Vienna. On the contrary, it seems rather that its true objective would be none other than the construction of a series of cities within the city of Vienna, "true" cities loaded with symbology.

Thus, it is impossible to ignore that the main characteristic of these small urban archipelagos, as Ungers would define them, is the construction of a strong working class consciousness and identity that would lift the spirit and the spirit of the fallen Austrian proletariat after World War I.

So it is not intended to alter the existing urban structure of Vienna, expanding it, but opting for the option of building small "autonomous cities" within the urban fabric itself or in regions bordering the periphery. In most cases, a very specific typology will be used: the, the Hof. This housing typology of large dimensions presents by structure and ambition a clear similarity with religious monasteries. Where in these a series of individual cells are grouped around a cloister, the heart of community life, in the Hof small apartments for families appear grouped around public courtyards, open to the city, where they develop all kinds of Urban and social activities around social facilities.

The emphasis placed on the quality of the public is fundamental in the construction of a community identity, and this aspect supposes the fundamental ideological feature of these proposals. A radical change of focus must be noted. Where up to now the use of an idea of ​​monumentality in architecture was applied to those spaces and buildings representative of state, religious or bourgeois power, in this case the same tools are applied to the construction of cheap housing and the surrounding space. The construction of decorative elements are not aimed at remarking the military or religious glories of state power, but to generate social ties through the generation of artisanal employment in a sector devastated by war and the subsequent crisis by the dismemberment of the Austro- Hungarian Empire. A language based on a highly functional and rationalist structure, in line with the modernity that in those years had already begun with great conviction in France or Germany, is arised but with a material concept presenting a certain continuity with the Vienna School and, above all, the modernity of figures such as Otto Wagner or Joze Plecnik.

Housing and public space are the monument of the proletariat, the elements that must generate the structure of the new city that shelters the life in community for people in peace and harmonious coexistence.

The construction of the Karl Marx Hof began in 1927 led by the architect Karl Ehn, author of the project. It is located in a large block on northern Vienna, close to railroad tracks. The almost 1400 houses are located in a superblock of more than 1 kilometer long, with aperimeter buildings protecting the public spaces that are generated in its interior from the annoyances that could be caused by the proximity of the railway infrastructure. The central block, with a more careful and monumental design, works as a gateway to the train station. The remaining blocks represent a height not exceeding six floors.

It is necessary to point out how this superblock responds to a problem of urban scale. On the one hand, its large dimensions in plan and its longitudinal extension parallel to the roads give it an urban scale, almost metropolitan, which refers to the entire city of Vienna and beyond its periphery. It stands as an independent city, an island of community life that should serve and serve as an example for the construction of an alternative society. This appeal could be interpreted almost on a national scale, since the municipal government of Vienna, unlike the rest of the country, which was much more conservative, was in the hands of a Social-Democratic party very close to Marxism.

On the other hand, carefull details and its high and friendly proportions, very human, endow the complex with a neighborhood scale that is ideal for the construction of an identity in the course of community life.

Public spaces are carefully designed. They have a series of public facilities such as libraries, day care centers or social centers. Even today the environmental quality of these public courtyards is outstanding.

This attitude should be clear. These public spaces are not limited to being a meeting place for the neighbors, they are open to the whole city of Vienna. A system of arcades and passages link these green courtyards to the surrounding streets, creating a conceptual and physical continuum, where pedestrians can walk and stop in their daily life. This system of linked public spaces is masterfully solved, generating a transition of scales and a gradient that goes from the public, the city of Vienna, to the "private" individual dwelling of each family. The development of an innovative housing typology was not a priority at this time, since the emphasis was to be placed on all public spaces and the different transitions between them.

Faced with the voracious consumption of the public we witness all over the globalized world, where obtaining an economic benefit and the exploitation of private property is the only valid argument, it is absolutely necessary to claim these spaces in order to believe, so , that another model of development was and is possible. A model that provides human being of space fundamental to his life and development in community, building a public environment of quality.